Creativity Lab!

For our final lab of the year we had the chance to challenge our creativity. We were asked to bring along our favorite unit plan that we had written so far and that's all we knew about the lab. When we got there, we were told that we were going to the Dollar Store and we had five dollars to purchase some things to make a lesson or the unit more creative.

I chose to bring along my genetics unit plan and I had no idea what I was going to buy at the Dollar Store to help teach one of these lessons. When we got there I looked around for a while trying to get
ideas. Then I found a bunch of fun crazy colored hair pieces. I got two brown, two lighter brown and one really bright red! My plan for these hair pieces is to choose one color that is dominant and one color that is recessive. Students will then put two of the hair pieces together and determine what color hair the offspring will have.

I really enjoyed this lab and thought that it was a fun idea. It really got me thinking out of the box to figure out unique ways to teach my content. It was really interesting to see what my classmates picked up as well!

I think that having creativity in the classroom is great for many reasons. First, it can make the learning experience more fun for the students. It can also get students thinking about the content and ways that hadn't before. This lab definitely made me want to think of unique and creative way to teach more of my content during student teaching.

" Creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen, but thinking what no one else has thought."

- Albert Einstein 

Weekly Writing #10

Classroom Management

How do I, as a first year teacher, gain my students respect and listen to me without being the "mean teacher"? Am I gonna be able to manage my classroom effectively? These are two questions that I often catch myself asking. This weeks writing really focused on how we can effectively manage student behavior. 

One of my favorite things that this week's writing talked about was how the teacher is the key ingredient for an acceptable classroom atmosphere. Without an environment that is acceptable it is almost for students to learn effectively. This means that if the students are behaving and focused its gonna be really hard for any learning to take place. Likewise, if the teacher can't involve the students and have a clear and organized lesson the same thing will happen. 

Not only is managing the classroom important for effective learning it is important for the satisfaction of the teacher and the students. If they aren't able to manage the behavior of the students they are probably not going to enjoy going into the classroom each day and wont be able to perform to the best of their ability. 

The writing also gave guidelines to follow in promoting acceptable behavior that I found very beneficial. All of these tips are simple but really effective ways to manage your classroom

   1. Start out firm

   2. Be prepared to teach well

   3. Have a definite routine by which each class is started

   4. Make generous use of praise

   5. Do not have favorites

   6. Be consistent, yet not predictable

   7. Take action whenever a problem arises

   8. Learn to separate the action of the student from the person of the student

   9. Never make threats, only make promises

   10. Set a good example

   11. Be sure the penalty fits the offense

   12. Be attentive to all behavior in the classroom or laboratory

   13. Learn to forgive and forget

The readings this week gave me a whole new view on classroom management. When I would originally hear those words I would think about ways to enforce good behavior and punish bad behavior. However, I now see that its so much more than that. It's about making a solid environment where students can learn as effectively as possible!

"In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can."

Microteaching: Central Columbia High School

For my microteaching experience Jillian Gordon, Carly-Jean Schaefer and I went to Central Columbia High School and taught for three days. I taught an Ag 2 class and did a lesson on fasteners. The students in my class were from all different grades and had different experiences with this topic.

The first day of teaching did not go nearly as well as it did in my head. I had my lesson plan, my PowerPoint, my worksheets and my sample fasteners to hand out. We did a quick get to know you game so I could get familiar with some of the students names. I gave the students two boards and had them try to put them together using tape, glue, rubber bands and play dough. Then we went over the 5 different categories of fasteners and why they are important.

I handed out a dichotomous key and three samples of fasteners and had the students use their key to identify the samples. This activity went really well but the students did it a lot faster than I thought they would. I ended up finishing with 15 minutes to spare and I kinda freaked out. I wasn't sure what to do so I had the students start on what I had planned for day 2.

The second day I had planned to go over three categories of fasteners; nails, screws and bolts. However, I ran out of time and only got through two. We took notes on the characteristics, types and vocab words related to each fastener. Then we had a competition to see who could make the best fasteners out of play dough!

For the third day we continued with our notes and talked about bolts, nuts and washers. While the students were taking notes I passed around samples of the fasteners so they could get a chance to look at them. After we had talked about each category of fasteners we played an intense game of
Pictionary! This was a great way to review all the different fasteners we went over in the past three days and also get the students up out of their seats.

Even though my first day didn't go so well, the other two were great! I really learned a lot from this experience from both the students and Mr. Brown and Mr. Turner who were great at working with us and giving us advice!

"Outside of your comfort zone is where the magic happens"

Life Knowledge Lesson

For one of our last labs we were asked to teach an FFA Life Knowledge lesson at our cooperating center. I was excited about this because it would be the first time we were teaching in front of students that we will teach for in the spring. I have to admit I was a little nervous to teach in front of my cooperating teacher but everything went well!

My cooperating teacher Ellen Aurand and I

I chose to do a lesson on leadership. The students were asked to come up with characteristics that describe a leader. I was amazed at all the different responses that students gave in each of the classes I taught. Hard working, friendly, responsible and fun were the most common responses that I got from the students.

After discussing characteristics and what it means to be a leader we talked about different leaders in our society. At first students were coming up with famous people or historical figures such as George Washington and Martin Luther King. The more we talked about what being a leader meant, the more the students began thinking of leaders they interact with on a daily basis. We talked about how their teachers, parents and peers can even be considered leaders.

For the last activity I had each of the students write down 3 things they could do on a daily basis that would make them a leader. I was surprised how much the students were engaged in this activity. They were really trying to think of things that they could do! After sharing some ideas aloud with the class, I encouraged the students to try and do one of the three things they wrote down by the end of the day!

Overall, I think that the life knowledge lesson went well. The students were engaged for the most part which made the lesson go smooth. I really enjoyed getting to teach in the classroom where I will be doing my student teaching this spring!

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

- John Quincy Adams

Multicultural Moment: National Convention

Everyday things go on around us that we never even notice. During our trip to the 2014 National FFA Convention we had the task of observing the behaviors of people around us. We were asked to watching how people interacted with people around them and find behaviors that were interesting, uplifting and depressing.

I was amazed at both the positive and negative behaviors of people throughout the week. Some of the more depressing behaviors I observed were things such as a young girl shouting at the man working at the cash register in a store when the machine wouldn't read her credit card. The cashier remained
calm and tried to help the girl but she just wasn't having it. I also overheard a couple complaining about the lady in front of them who brought her small child to the convention in a stroller. They were saying things such as "what was she thinking? Who would ever bring a child here with all these other people? She is just causing traffic jams with all these people."

On the other hand, I saw a lot of great things that made me happy. I saw two young FFA members give up their seats so an elderly couple could sit without being asked. I also saw a lady pay extra so the next few people in line didn't have to pay for their coffee.

It was really interesting to sit back and really observe the behaviors around me. I felt bad for the people who were being treated badly by people they didn't even know and it made me happy to see those positive behaviors throughout my trip. This really made me think about my behaviors and what other people would think if they oversaw or overheard me.

"Make sure all of your actions and behaviors live up to and reflect the words, ideas and promises that come out of your mouth"

- Steve Farber 

Lab: Inquiry Based Instruction

Today was our last lab that we taught in front of this group of peers and it was definitely the most
stressful for me. I really had trouble coming up with a topic to teach for my Inquiry Based Unit of Instruction. Once I finally got my lesson figured out I was pumped!

I was going to use Easter Eggs and M&M's to teach about genetics, specifically dominant and recessive genes. Each student was given an egg and the shell was either a solid color or a combination of two colors. After brainstorming with a partner and then as a whole class. The students
had to determine what color the 4 M&M's in their egg were based on the color of their plastic egg shell. After figuring out what color was dominant and which was recessive, they were then given 4 M&M's and had to determine what color their shells should be.

It took a while to get my lesson plan laid out along with the lab worksheets for the students. I was pretty nervous to do this lab because it was the most complicated of the ones I have written so far. The lab started out well but then got pretty intense. Once we got to the point of opening the eggs to figure out what the different colors were, I could tell the students were getting a little stressed
because they couldn't figure it out.

The most frustrating part for me was that it made sense to me and I knew what the answer should be but I didn't know how to explain to my students without giving away the answer. We were able to get to the answer and get the lab finished but the students and I were both frustrated at one point or the other.

I think the lesson can be really awesome with some changes. It was a great hands on activity for the students and a great visual of what dominant and recessive genes mean. Even though this lab didn't go exactly the way I had planned or hoped, I am looking forward to making some changes and teaching this lesson again!

"It's not about how bad you want it,  it's about how hard you are willing to work."

Weekly Writing #9

Inquiry Based Instruction

Teaching in a way that reaches all of the students is important but can be really challenging. One method of teaching that can reach a lot of students in a fun and effective way. I have always heard about inquiry based instruction but honestly never totally understood what it was. This week's readings really helped me to understand what inquiry based instruction was and also gave me some great ideas on how I can implement it in my future classroom.

Inquiry based instruction is a teaching method that combines the interest and curiosity of the students with the scientific method. It also helps to enhance the development of critical thinking skills. Students are able to identify a problem and observe, formulate questions and apply new information to gain a better understanding. 

Inquiry based instruction involves five activities that students engage in using the scientific method. 

1. Learner engages in scientifically oriented questions

2. Learner gives priority to evidence in responding to questions

3. Learner formulates explanations from evidence

4. Learner connects explanations to scientific knowledge

5. Learner communicates and justifies explanations

This method of instruction is great for agriculture education because we play a vital role in the integration of science, math, reading and writing in our classrooms. When students are active in the inquiry based instruction they are able to utilize skills from these many other areas. Inquiry based learning also requires students to use their hands and minds which allows them to create their own understanding. This adds to the learning by doing method of agriculture education. 

In order to effectively implement inquiry based instruction in the classroom, teachers should use a six step cycle shown below. 

"The art & science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge."

-Thomas Berger